2018-09-20 Leeward Exh B (Bill 108 re Short-term Vacation Rentals)

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actually to advocate to you exempt condominiums from Bill 108. There are so much regulation in this bill and it’s just gone off, kind of gone off on a tangent. There’s numerous condominium projects, more than are on the slide: Kona Isle, Aka Ala, Kona by the Sea, Kona Riviera, Malia Kai, Kona Pacific, Kona Mansions, Maluhia Kai, Kona Westwind, Kona Eastwind, and Ikena Lalo. They are just a few that this bill hasn’t taken into consideration and will have some unintended consequences. Some of these projects have been doing vacation renting since the 1970’s and are outside the Resort and Resort Node. Owners have purchased these condos with the intent to use the condo for several weeks or months out of the year and can rent the units to vacationers when they are not in residence to help defray some of their carrying costs. In truth, most of these condo owners cannot even conceive that we are sitting here today with this bill in front of us that would radically change the way they’ve always managed their homes in Hawai‘i. Except for the few homeowners that are here testifying today, the normal Tom, Dick or Harry that owns their house here, they have no idea we are messing with their livelihoods to maintain their Hawai‘i home and their private property rights. So, additionally to the condos being exempt, the AOAOs, the HOAs, homeowners associations, they self-govern themselves for noise and generally have property managers – and they have to have one by law, if they are off island – that pay their GE and TAT for these units. So the condominiums and these subdivisions that already allow STRs. So being self-governed and they already pay taxes, I think that these condominiums, condominiums across the board, should be exempt, and residential subdivisions that already have CC&Rs on the books that control them should be exempt from this bill. If affordable housing is the goal for this administration, Bill 108 is not the answer. Reinstating zoning and permits allowing for ‘ohana building will keep families together, provide more housing, makes it more affordable because you already have the land, and it makes living in Hawai‘i a reality. But it is very difficult to get extra dwellings built on a piece of land owned by your family – I know firsthand. Thank you. \[Applaud from the audience.\] UNGER: Thank you. Charla Thompson, Mary Stupi, Corinne De Soto, Jeff King, Egen Moe, Sharon Diedrichs, Susan Dmytrenko – sorry if I pronounced that wrong. Thank you. We can start on the right. Please state your name and area of residence. STUPI: My name is Mary Stupi. I live in Kailua-Kona. And I have pretty much just one big issue. I understand that people want short-term rentals. That’s fine. AUDIENCE: Can’t here you \[inaudible\]. STUPI: Sorry. I understand that short-term rentals aren’t going to go away. I come from a neighborhood where we had seven residences at one point, and now we are down to seven rentals. And the dwindling of the community into short-term rentals versus people that actually own their homes and live there is nothing; it leaves two people that live there as fulltime residents to babysit the rest of the residences. But I’m over that. What I can’t get over is the fact that some of these people don’t pay taxes. They are not paying their, they are not paying their property taxes correctly; they claim they are residents, they are not residents. And nothing is being done in regards to the enforcement. So I understand you want to have rules and 27 EXHIBIT B